Tribal Affairs
2024
2024-10-01 During a Kendrick Idaho meeting, representatives claimed that discrimination doesn’t exist in Idaho. When a Nez Perc member stated the contrary, Senator Forman told Trish Carter Goodheart to go back to where she came from and proceeded to storm out. Senator Forman is still running for the 2026 election.
2025 January
2025-01-28 The Navajo Nation in Arizona issued a warning to citizens that dozens of their tribe members were being stopped, questioned, and detained based solely on their appearance.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/27/us/navajo-detained-ice-indigenous-immigration-trump
https://narf.org/citizenship-immigration-2025/
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/29/native-american-immigration-raids-navajo-nation
2025 July
2025-07-06 Ann Coulter posted “We didn’t kill enough Indians” in response to a Navajo woman professor dictation.
https://nahc.ca.gov/2025/07/nahc-denounces-pro-genocidal-statement/
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1273507801440992&set=a.349594800498968&type=3&ref=embed_post
2025 August
2025-08-19 Trump pushed back on a court decision to temporarily block the Resolution Copper project, blaming the delay on the “radical left”. For context, the Resolution Copper project is a widely controversial project which aims to develop copper mining upon sacred and protected Native American holy sites protected by treaties since the 1800’s. Also noteworthy, China has invested billions of dollars in this project, so the argument is where does the responsibility lay, with wealthy Chinese investors or the American people.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/20/copper-trump-slams-anti-american-pushback-over-arizona-project.html
2025 September
2025-09-15 Jacqueline De Leon of the Native American Rights Fund was interviewed by Katie Phang, stating how Native American rights are impacted by voting discrimination rulings. She discussed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act potentially being on the chopping block by fall.
2025 November
2025-11-28 Elaine Miles, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and known for her acting role in Northern Exposure, was detained and questioned by ICE. News outlets reported that when she provided her tribal identification card, ICE accused her of providing a fake ID. (For context, the Navajo Nations had issued a warning to citizens back in January 2025 for ICE agents profiling Native Americans).